


Luka

by lemonadesoda



Series: And I don't think you hate this as much as you wish you did [8]
Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Genre: Dadtcher, Fluff, Gen, Oh the Humanity AU (A Hat in Time), cameos from the Conductor and DJ Grooves, like so much fluff you guys, oth!au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-17 16:22:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28852005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lemonadesoda/pseuds/lemonadesoda
Summary: Who is he now? The question keeps coming back.
Relationships: Bow Kid & Snatcher (A Hat in Time), Hat Kid & Snatcher (A Hat in Time), Moonjumper & Snatcher (A Hat in Time)
Series: And I don't think you hate this as much as you wish you did [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1999939
Comments: 44
Kudos: 149





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Have fun with this one guys.
> 
> Accompanying doodles: https://doodledrawsthings.tumblr.com/post/619519997695410176/and-now-we-dance  
> https://doodledrawsthings.tumblr.com/post/617825354094100480/heres-some-cute-to-make-up-for-all-the-angst
> 
> Also check out Zacixn's Snatcher is Not A Fan of Bird Movies which is a cute short story about the premiere party.

> _ You make me feel almost human. _
> 
> _ -Lauren Daigle, 'Almost Human' _

Hunched over at his usual place in the ship’s lab, Snatcher coats a glass fragment with a clear solution he spent the day adjusting. He holds up the glass with his pliers and guides its edge to line up with a counterpart fragment propped up on a stand. He leans closer and inhales to keep his hand steady, then reaches to a dial on the side of the lab table and ticks it up a degree at a time. As he does, a charged buzzing builds in the air and a thin laser drills onto the point of contact between the two pieces, setting them aglow starting from the jagged edge of their shattering point and expanding like magma to ignite them in their entirety.

A giggle sounds from the other table. “Hah, what’s a  _ Luka? _ ” Hat Kid asks.

Snatcher’s hand spasms, cranking the dial and the low buzzing becomes a shriek. The needle of focused light expands into a brilliant beam, and the glass fragments flash white-hot and burst into a spray of molten dust.

“Agh!” Snatcher flinches back, cutting the laser and dropping the pliers as the microscopic shrapnel slaps against his face shield. Even though he’s wearing gloves, he wrings his hands out, the miniature concussion enough to sting him where his clothes are thinner.

“Whoa! Are you okay?” Hat Kid tosses a book onto the table and vaults over to him, Bow Kid at her side.

Snatcher whips his head in their direction, stopping them mid-sprint with a burning glare. “ _ What _ did you call me?”

Hat Kid actually shuffles back a half-step. “I...didn’t call you anything? I was just wondering what a ‘Luka’ was.”

Snatcher flinches at the sound of his name again, and at the sight of it, the two kids frown with worry.

“Snatcher?” Bow Kid peeps.

And like a counterspell, hearing  _ that _ name--the one the two of them have been calling him this entire time--spoken in Bow’s tiny, distressed voice, shakes him back to rational thought. He takes a breath to steady himself.

“Where did you see that?” he asks, peeling the face shield away from his head and tossing it haphazardly to the side.

“Um, it was just in one of your books,” Hat Kid says, brushing her knuckles together with her shoulders withdrawn. “I thought it was maybe an ingredient or something.”

“What?” he groans, sliding his way over to follow them back to their side of the lab. Hat Kid picks up the book she had been holding before rushing to check on him and points at a slip of paper that had been stuck in the margins. A dried flower is still pressed onto it, hints of deep pink still persisting even through the fading of age. Snatcher picks it up and reads it.

_ Dearest Luka--for whenever you find your mind is wandering and needs a place to rest. -Love, Ven. _

Right. That was the old journal she gave him when they were young. He never ended up writing in it when he was still alive because he had been paralyzed trying to figure out the perfect ideas for what to fill it with. Snatcher stares at note for far too long, and the kids bubble next to him with suppressed questions. When the edges of the paper crinkle from the force of his grip, he unclenches his hand and lets it sway back down onto the table. “It’s not an ingredient.” He rips the goggles off and throws them over his shoulder onto the floor, the gloves dropping in a trail behind him not long after as he stalks toward the door.

Snatcher slows down once he makes it to the bridge, realizing he has no destination in mind, only that the sudden pressure that engulfed him in the workshop expelled him from the room. The kids have tiptoed out after him--he feels rather than hears their nervous approach from behind.

"Is it a name?" Bow Kid asks quietly, and in her voice Snatcher hears rather than sees the hunch of her shoulders and her fidgeting with her thumbs. He answers with silence.

" _ Your _ name?" Hat Kid follows, also hesitant.

He contemplates fleeing again, but they'll follow if he leaves them confused. "Yes."

"From before?"

" _ Yes, obviously! _ " he hisses, and his feet propel him forward again, back to the bedroom. He shouldn’t snap at them, he tells himself as he marches out. It’s not their fault. He’s surprised Hat Kid hasn’t retaliated by now. They don’t seem to be following anymore though, which is a temporary blessing that will have repercussions later, when he has to pick up his own pieces and soothe their hurt feelings.

Snatcher drops himself face down on his bed and makes himself a coffin out of his blanket and lies this way until he’s light-headed from the partial smothering. When he comes up for air, Bow Kid is sitting two feet away, knees pulled up to her chest, and Snatcher lurches, slapping a hand to his chest.

"Oh f-Kid! When did you materialize there?"

She twists around and pulls a mug of tea from behind her and pushes it toward him.

Snatcher eyes the mug, then gingerly takes it, rubbing his eyes with his other hand. "Let me guess," he sighs, "the other one is mad."

"No," Bow says, to his surprise. "She just feels bad so she doesn’t want to talk yet. But she wanted to give you tea."

It’s still pretty warm when he sips it, though a little over-brewed, giving it an edge of bitterness. Snatcher lifts an eyebrow at Bow. "And what about you?"

She shrugs and curls up tighter.

Snatcher sighs again and shuffles himself over to sit next to her, leaning against the glass of the window. He drapes the blanket over her so they’re both wrapped in it together. Bow Kid unfurls in its shelter and snuggles closer, ducking herself under his arm.

"So your name is Luka?" she asks after a time. The sound of it still sends a stab of ice through his core. "It’s a nice name." She glances up at him. "You don’t like it?"

He huffs bitterly. This is a better conversation for Moonjumper, but he has to hold his own for now. "It’s just been a long time," he says. "I guess I don’t really feel like that guy anymore."

Bow Kid scrunches her nose adorably. "You don’t feel like...yourself?"

"Yeah, kid. We’re not the same people, y’know? I mean we are, but we’re not." Great talk, Snatcher.

"Huh?" Bow says, predictably.

"I don’t know either, kid. I just don’t feel like he’s  _ me. _ I’ve spent a long time being a ghost, remember?"

“Oh...Like you changed so much that you could be two people?”

“Heh, see, you got it.”

“But then…” She frowns. “You’re different now too.”

Now there’s a lot to unpack in that. “Yeah, I guess.” Snatcher laughs nervously. “I guess being human again, I fell back into some old habits.” The words taste strange even as he says them, coated in the flavor of denial, so acrid now that he knows its name. “Well, not exactly, I-I mean…” But the words to match the feeling are tangled in the weeds. He took so much for granted how Moonjumper could hear what he couldn’t say. Snatcher tugs at the hem of the blanket, aware that Bow is watching him, still waiting for him to finish his thought.

“Old Luka habits?” she asks, once it becomes obvious he’s tapered off. “Sorry…” she says, after he flinches.

“I-yeah. Suppose so.” But again, not exactly. He’s holding her against his chest, curled up in the warmth of a blanket in the comforting dark, and  _ he can’t blame this on his past anymore. _ These things are coming close to second-nature by now. The sounds of their footsteps, their chatter, their presence have imprinted into the background of his life so that he moves in accord with their orbit like a satellite captured by their gravity.

“So then, if you change back...are you gonna be like your, uh, your normal Snatcher-y self again too?” she asks.

Snatcher hesitates. The kid makes a point, after all: he’s different now. Once they fix the Time Piece, will he change again? Will he forget the warmth of this moment? Will he forget his whispered confession to Moonjumper? The texture of denial on his tongue? There’s too much uncertainty in his future. Best to manage expectations. “I-uh. Maybe, kid. I don’t know.” But even as he says this, his arm around her shoulders tightens.

“Oh. You were kind of scary.”

That should be validating. He was trying to be at the time. But there’s something she’s trying to say, underneath what comes out aloud. Her words eddy around the heart of the matter like a river diverting around obstacles hidden below the surface.

_ I didn’t want to lose you, _ she’d said, when she held his hand. 

Though perfectly still on the surface, Snatcher’s heart races--the heart that ghosts don’t have.

“Heh, yeah, kid, that was kind of the point.”

“I know,” she says glumly.

It’s going to be a while before Bow Kid works up to saying what she really means, but maybe it’s just another testament to the way he’s changed that Snatcher hears the words within the words-- _ I want you to stay this way. _

(Does  _ he? _ )

They talk some more, mostly about books and alchemy, though at one point Bow Kid finally admits she hated the Death Wishes but did them because she was worried about Hat.

“You weren’t supposed to like them,” he tells her, but he can’t even trust the things he says anymore. The magic of hindsight, he thinks with chagrin. If he really wanted to drive them away, there had always been more efficient methods.

After nearly an hour, Hat Kid still hasn’t returned, so the two of them shuffle down the slide, Snatcher with the blanket still draped over his shoulders like a cape, and Bow tiptoeing beside him, hidden in its folds, and they embark on their investigation together. They find Hat slumped over with her face on the kitchen table and a mug of room-temperature cocoa still in her hand as she snores. Snatcher fails to both pick her up and keep the blanket on, so Bow Kid takes over cape responsibilities while Snatcher carries her droopy sibling back to the bedroom.

(His upper body strength is improving.)

“I’m not sleepy,” Hat Kid says with her eyes still closed when he props her on the edge of the bed.

“Sure thing, kiddo.” Off to the side, Bow Kid rummages through their closet to get their pajamas.

“I’m  _ not, _ ” she says. She looks up at him with puffy eyes. “I didn’t mean to make you mad. I didn’t know-Agh!”

Snatcher cuts her off with a poke in the side as he sits down next to her. “I know.” He stares down at his hands clasped in his lap. “It’s not your fault. I...I shouldn’t have, uh, shouldn’t have yelled.”

“So if that note was for you, then...Ven is…”

“Vanessa, yes.”

She’s silent for a while, and even Bow Kid looks somber as she hands over Hat’s sleep clothes and then sits on Hat’s other side. “Why’d she do that to you?” she bites out at last, taking Snatcher aback.

He drops a hand on top of her head, making her slump down a bit. “Whoa, kid, take it easy!” Her jaw still juts out as she grits her teeth. “Where’s this coming from?”

“You were family, right?” Hat snaps, though it’s not directed at him for once. “Family’s supposed to take care of each other!”

“Hey, hey! It’s okay!” He grabs ahold of her shoulder, giving it a little shake.

“It’s not!” She bangs her fists on her thighs. “They’re supposed to be on your side, not hurt you! You-” She turns to him, and her eyes are fully watery again. She opens her mouth to shout something else but her lip trembles, and she clamps it shut again, clenching her teeth so hard it makes Snatcher’s head hurt to look at. Beside her, Bow Kid sniffles too, apparently caught up in the burst of emotion. Hat Kid throws her arms around him, balling up the fabric of his shirt in her grip.

“Kiddo…” It’s a little hard for him to move since she has his arms pinned to his side, but he manages to pry her off him. He lifts his hand, draws it back in hesitation for a moment, then reaches forward and shakily brushes his thumb along her cheek until she finally loosens her jaw. “Come on, what’s going on?” he asks softly.

“You-” she hiccups, “-looked so sad.”

Snatcher goes still, parsing her meaning. He picks up her pajamas which have spilled onto the floor in her outburst. “You’re upset because I was sad?” he asks, still keeping his voice low. 

At the very least, Hat only sticks her lip out this time instead of fully grinding her teeth, but she doesn’t respond otherwise, only glares down at nothing. That she got so angry on his behalf is something he’s going to have to sort through too, but right now neither kid seems like they can talk about it, and Snatcher doesn’t have the presence of mind to guide them through it himself. Instead he stands up, nudging Hat Kid to join him and coaxes them to the washroom to get cleaned up and changed and nips off to the kitchen to make some comfort food while they’re occupied.

He heats up a fresh round of cocoa for the two and renews his own cup of tea, keeping watch over a pot of instant soup as he does so. When the drinks are done and the soup simmers idly, Snatcher leans back against the counter and scrubs his face with his hands, finally alone to catch himself up with the situation. Who is he now? He’s wondered this a number of times in the last several weeks, but never so loudly. There is the question, but where is the answer? All these times he’s tried to pin his actions on the instincts of his old self, but he never used to do any of this. Instincts they may be, but these are new.

He picks up the tray of drinks and food, gripping them harder than necessary just to make sure the tremor in his hands doesn’t create a mess, and steps back out into the hall to be whoever it is he has become--the guy that makes them cocoa and carries them to bed.

“Hey, kiddos, feeling better?” Snatcher sets the tray down on the bedside stand. The kids are sitting in bed, Hat Kid just a mound entirely submerged in blankets, and Bow Kid up to her chin in them, leaning against her.

“Mrmgh,” Hat grumbles in a muffled voice.

Snatcher peels the blanket off. Their hair is still damp from washing, leaving water stains on the sheets and pillows. They take the offerings of food with mumbled thanks and eat quietly while Snatcher sits on the edge of the bed, wondering what he’s supposed to say.

“You don’t have to think about what happened to me,” he finally says. “It was a long time ago.” Meaning:  _ please don’t think about what happened to me, you’re a couple of kids, oh my god, don’t think about that. _

“But you still think about it,” Hat says.

“Not all the time.” And he realizes this is more true now than ever. For once, instead of burying those memories and carefully skirting around their gravesite, Snatcher has been so preoccupied with other things that he’s been trampling all over it. “I’m fine, kiddo.” He’s not, really, but this too is truer than it has ever been.

“But the note,” Hat Kid presses.

He shakes his head. “Just surprised me. Maybe brought some things back. But those are  _ my _ things to carry, got it? It’s not something I want you to be worrying about.”

“Okay…” The way she glances off to the side tells him otherwise.

“I’m serious, kid.”

“I know!”

That’s probably as good as he’s going to get out of her, whether she actually decides to listen to him or not, so Snatcher lets it go.

Bow beckons a hand toward him. “Are you going to read tonight?”

“Hm? Sure, kiddo.” He leans over to the bed stand and grabs the novel they’ve been working through. He opens it and starts reading--silently. Snatcher suppresses a smile, waiting. A pillow smacks the side of his face, and he snorts.

“Out loud, peck-neck!” Hat Kid says.

“Well, you didn’t say!” he laughs, but flips back to where they actually left off and begins the bedtime ritual in earnest.


	2. Chapter 2

Snatcher is lying in the middle of the bedroom floor, because that’s the place that currently feels the most right to be. A headache beats the backs of his eyes, and his hands hurt from the day’s futile efforts in the lab. He’s close to figuring out how to create the sealing concoction to fix the Time Piece, but it’s starting to become increasingly clear that nothing on Earth can match the properties of the stasis glass.

Two silhouettes appear overhead. He swats the air languidly. “Kids, can’t you see I’m busy staring vacantly at the ceiling? You’re blocking the light.”

“Yeah, but we have something exciting to tell you,” Hat says.

“Do you have a concentrated stasis compound that I can incorporate into the sealant to fix the Time Piece?”

“No, but-”

“Not interested.”

“Hey! Snatcherrr! Just listen!” Hat Kid tugs on his arm to pull him into a sitting position. Snatcher intentionally lets all his limbs become jelly, laughing when the two of them struggle to get him to stay upright. Hat stumbles back, and he flops on top of her. “Quit messing around, you big dummy! Your butt is crushing me!” she snaps from underneath him, shoving him off. He rolls over, wheezing, but stays where he is on the floor.

“We’re going to be in a new movie!” Bow finally announces, loud enough to stop the impending tussle. Snatcher raises an eyebrow, impressed at the enunciation. He gives her a thumbs up.

“Yeah,” Hat Kid says, making a show of dusting herself off and straightening her cape. “What Bow said.”

“Uh, great, kiddos. Is-is that all?”

“Ughhh no! Stop talking, we’re trying to tell you,” Hat groans. “There’s gonna be a big premiere party because DJ Grooves and the Conductor are working together for the first time ever in bird history! And we got special invites because we’re the stars!”

“Bird history huh?” Snatcher pushes himself up. “Wait, where is this going?” he asks warily.

“They’re letting us bring guests with us-” Bow starts.

“-Because we’re the stars,” Hat interjects.

“-And we wanted you and Moonjumper to come.”

It’s Snatcher’s turn to groan. “Kiddos, come on, you know I don’t like going out. And parties? With famous people? You’ve got to be kidding me.”

To his surprise, the kids don’t seem dismayed at all. They just grin at him, eyes blazing with determined fire, and he actually leans away from them, suddenly afraid for his life.

“I knew you’d say that, so we came up with a brilliant plan to help you change your mind,” Hat says.

“Ough, ‘plan?’ Did you get Moon involved?”

“Yes!” Bow Kid chirps. “They had a bunch of suggestions.”

Snatcher buries his head in his hands. “I’m gonna kill that guy.”

“No you won’t! You’ll see! It’ll be fun!” Hat Kid says, twirling away on her heel, presumably, to initiate the brilliant plan.

Yeah, fun like the cruise, he bets. Mentally, he tries to prepare himself to go to an hours-long party in a few days, because obviously, they’re going to change his mind. Well. He can at least go back to staring at the ceiling again. For now.

The premiere is in three days, and Snatcher watches the kids’ every move with suspicion, wondering what that brilliant plan is going to be. He even talks to Moonjumper to try and pry it out of them, but they just give him an innocent smile and tell him, “I only offered suggestions, but the rest is out of my hands.”

The first day, the kids make him stand awkwardly while they take measurements for his outfit, and he warns them not to put him in anything stupid.

“You already look like a dork anyway, so it can’t get any worse,” Hat Kid fires back.

“You’re the ones who picked my outfits!” he retorts, and then realizes that’s not even close to being a devastating comeback. Moonjumper, who’s also there for a fitting topples midair laughing. Snatcher whirls on them. “Shut up, you!  _ You’re _ wearing  _ my _ clothes!” This does not make them shut up.

The second day, the kids eat their breakfasts unusually ravenously and bolt from the kitchen before he can comment. When he enters the workshop to start his day, they’re already there, conferring in mutters with bowed heads. They jerk upright when he enters, and he eyes them as he makes his way to his table. Before he even gets started, they scamper over.

Hat Kid takes a deep breath, and Bow Kid clasps her hands formally behind her back, though Snatcher can tell she’s probably fidgeting with them. He frowns at their sudden solemnity.

“We have something for you,” Hat Kid says. “And it’s really important, so listen carefully.”

“O-kay?”

Bow clears her throat. “You know how you were explaining the other day that you almost had something that could seal the Time Piece together, but you didn’t have something that matched the stasis properties of the glass?”

“Yeah…” It had been the sticking point of his work for multiple weeks. He had managed to create a brew that could mimic the properties of almost anything, so long as he had a sufficient sample of the thing to mimic. From there, fusing something together was only a matter of applying just the right level of energy for the sealant to achieve resonance with the objects it was mimicking, allowing whatever was separate to meld together as an uninterrupted whole. But there wasn’t enough stasis glass to salvage from the broken Time Piece to assimilate into the potion without compromising the structure, and where the hell would he find anything else like that?

Bow Kid continues, “So we thought about it for a while, and we wondered maybe you could use this.” She nods to Hat Kid who produces from her dimensional inventory a glowing crystal contained in a tinted box.

“It’s a stasis core. One of them powers that shield over there.” Hat Kid points at the forcefield that actively keeps Snatcher’s broken Time Piece from rifting. “Obviously, we can’t use that one or else it’ll disrupt the shield, but this is our one back up core.”

He plucks the proffered box with his thumb and forefinger, turning it around to peer at its contents. "This thing is what’s in the glass?"

"I think so. They both do the same thing."

If it is, though, the concentration is certainly enough to infuse the sealant and even if there are other compounds in the glass, this should at least resonate with the components that are most relevant to making it work. Snatcher’s mind rewinds and catches on something she said. "Wait, your  _ one _ back up?"

The two of them nod seriously.

"What if you need it later?"

"We only need it for the stasis shield which we don’t normally need except for working on Time Piece mechanisms," Bow Kid says.

"We haven’t needed it this whole time so I think it’s fine," Hat Kid finishes. "We just meant don’t waste it 'cause we only have the one."

Snatcher stares at the core, which has suddenly skyrocketed in value. He looks back at the kids. "You’re letting me have your  _ one _ back up that you can’t replace?"

"We can replace it. Eventually. We would just have to go real far to get a new one, and our current shield is doing fine, so I don’t think that will be a problem," Hat says.

"Okay, so your one back up that is extremely difficult to replace."

"We know it’s really important to you to fix the Time Piece," says Bow. "And you’ve been working a lot on it. But we thought you wouldn’t be as stressed at the party if you were able to finish the sealant. So it’s okay. We thought about this a lot."

"You...really want me to go to this thing, huh?" He can’t help but smile.

"Yeah. 'Course we do. You-" Hat Kid scuffs her boots on the floor as she fumbles her words. "You’re our BFF," she mumbles, trailing off.

The admission leaves him speechless, so Snatcher reaches out and ruffles her hair, somewhat stiffly. He takes the stasis core back to the workbench and sets it up, wringing the jitters that have overtaken his hands. The kids watch him, poking their faces just above the edge of the table. Protective shield, goggles, gloves all in place, Snatcher deactivates the containment box around the core and begins the infusion process.

Numbing energy radiates from the tiny crystal, palpable even through the shield. He heats the prepared brew and adds a few extra tinctures from small vials he had stored in the desk drawer. The concoction rapidly goes neon, magenta smoke billowing out from the flask. Steadily, he lowers the stasis core into the mix and the moment it touches the liquid, the steam shrieks out of the opening just before Snatcher snaps the seal on to the flask. It flashes white hot, making all three of them flinch away from the shine of the miniature sun in front of them, and for a moment Snatcher fears the flask won’t contain the reaction inside it. Then the light dies down, and though the potion still glows and churns inside, slowly, it settles until the heat and energy finally fades, leaving a translucent white-gold liquid sparkling in the glass. Snatcher exhales, dropping his elbows onto the tabletop and resting his forehead against the shield.

"Did it work?" Bow Kid whispers.

Snatcher yanks the magnifying glass over from where it’s propped up off to the right and zooms in on the fresh brew. Within, he sees the same glimmering specks of gold and blue that he saw in the Time Piece shard.

"I think so," he says.

"That’s...great!" Hat Kid says. "Now, all that’s left is for me to finish calibrating the timelines."

"Yeah." An awkward silence follows. Snatcher forces a smile. "Well that took a lot less time than I thought but, uh, guess we’re done here today, huh?"

"Oh? Ah haha yeah, guess so!" Hat Kid says with a breathy laugh. Bow shoots her a glance from beside her that Snatcher refrains from commenting on.

He sets the completed stasis sealant on the counter, pauses for a moment, then leads them back out of the lab. The three of them all seem to be in a daze, and Snatcher can only guess at the kid’s reasons. He’s so close to going back to normal, the biggest obstacle out of his way. He could test it now, just to be certain; he could press the kids to finish their part. Instead, he’s sitting with them in the beanbag corner in silence, pretending to watch a cartoon they put on the display.

Things are moving very fast--too fast. The Time Piece is close to being finished, and the thought clenches around his throat. He glances at the kids, huddled together on the same beanbag, then turns his glazed expression back to the mindless entertainment. He can still do this in his old form, can’t he? Changing back is irrefutably a good thing, surely. There was so much more he could do as a ghost.

...There was so much that he couldn’t.


	3. Chapter 3

Day three arrives--show time. For once both kids are up well before him, their giggles and chatter drawing him from his dreams. From his vantage point at the top of the ramp, Snatcher watches them dart between their haphazard bowls of cereal and the numerous outfits they have sprawled out on the bed and the floor. Right, they apparently made him something. He grimaces to imagine what that might be.

As if sensing they’re being watched, the kids soon turn their attention toward him. Seeing him awake, they beam and bolt toward the pillow pile and bound up to his bed.

“Oh good, you’re awake!” Hat says, bouncing on the pillows just in front of him. “You have to try on your new outfit.”

Snatcher squints at her. “The premiere isn’t till the evening.”

“We have to check if it fits alright,” Bow says. “In case we have to fix it before we go.”

He groans, sliding out from under the covers. “Fine, but I’m having my morning tea first.”

As Snatcher waits for the kettle to boil, Moonjumper floats into the kitchen. “Good morning!” they holler. “Ready to get ready?”

“Sometimes I hate that you don’t sleep. You are way too energetic for this hour.”

“And it seems you have gotten quite comfortable having a sleep cycle, since I seem to recall many obnoxious wake-up calls to your poor victims, I mean contractors.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not going to try and fight against the will of this vessel. I tried the No Sleeping thing. Lost that battle.” Snatcher pours himself a bowl of cereal to try and sneak a quick meal while he’s here, since he has a bad feeling the kids’ antics are going to keep him occupied through the morning. And the afternoon. And definitely the evening.

“I’ve heard,” Moonjumper says, in a softer tone, “you might be close to going back.”

Snatcher gives them a Look that telepathically projects,  _ I really can’t think about that right now, and I need to put off that decision for as long as I can without it being weird, and I don’t even know why I want to put it off since this is the thing I’ve been working toward all these months. _

Moonjumper drifts over and hovers next to him. “I wondered as much,” they say, evidently reading his mind well enough. They open their mouth to say more, then hesitate, glancing over to him as he munches sullenly on his breakfast. “Can I just say...don’t make assumptions about what your options are?”

“What?”

They shrug. “Just know what you want, that’s all. I mean what you _ really _ want, and then worry about whether it’s possible after, before you make any final decisions.”

“I  _ don’t _ know what I want, Moon,” he murmurs.

They seem about to respond when the kitchen doors burst open. “How long does it take to make tea? Ugh! Come onnn!” Hat Kid shouts and then scampers back out into the hall.

Snatcher mutters a curse under his breath and tosses the cereal bowl into the sink. He tosses a tea bag into his cup and heads for the door. Moonjumper shakes their head, chuckling as they follow.

“Can I also say, you smile more these days,” they say from behind.

Snatcher’s heart skips a beat, though he manages not to break his stride.

The kids are waiting in the bedroom, practically vibrating. They have the pair of outfits laid out on the bed and from what Snatcher can see, it’s...not stupid. Once he and Moonjumper approach, the kids each take one of the outfits and hold them up, though the clothes are much taller than them, and they end up draping partly on the floor.

“Ta-da!” 

Hat and Bow are already dressed in their outfits, the former in a dapper purple waistcoat to match her hat, and the latter in a glittery party dress matching her usual green and blue color scheme. For Snatcher and Moonjumper, they’ve apparently tailored a couple of tuxedos in purple and maroon.

“Huh,” Snatcher says dumbly. It’s actually really elegant, though how he’ll actually look in such modern attire, he’s not sure.

“Okay you have to put it on now to make sure it fits,” Bow Kid says, brow furrowed with intensity.

So they step out to change, and Snatcher returns with most of the ensemble successfully arranged. “I don’t know how this thing works,” he says, holding out the tie to Bow.

“I can be no help,” Moonjumper says, straightening out the creases in their collar and sleeves. “I know the same things he does.” Their own tie is draped around their neck like a scarf.

“You don’t know how to tie a tie?” Hat Kid asks, hopping to her feet from her seat on the pillow stack. She has her own little yellow bow tie affixed to her collar.

“Uh, no, you saw what I wore back in the day. We didn’t really have this kind of stuff,” Snatcher grouses. He kneels down while she ties it for him. Nearby, Bow Kid is occupied doing the same for Moonjumper.

“Okay, that goes under the waistcoat and then put the jacket on.”

“‘Kay…” He shrugs on the dinner jacket, rolling his shoulders to test the fit. “How do I look?”

Bow Kid cups her face in her hands, a high-pitched squealing ringing from her like a kettle, and Hat Kid grins. “You still look like a dork,” Hat says, but her smile is too big to make the insult land properly.

Snatcher scowls theatrically at her and walks over to their full body mirror hanging from the closet door. The sight makes him pause, and his jaw slackens. He’s spent weeks in casual sweaters and t-shirts--comfortable things to help him get accustomed to the sensory experience of having fabric constantly touching him. Even when he’d been alive, he was never much for fashion, so he wore whatever the kids tossed his way. But the crisp lines and rich colors of these clothes made just for him, combined with the clearly high-quality materials, stir something in him.

He still spends most of the time avoiding the sight of his reflection, so when he does look at himself, the changes are noticeable. The person looking back at him now is not the same one who broke his hand punching a mirror months ago. Snatcher didn’t even realize, but his lips have quirked up into a small smile, like they’ve been freed of a weight holding them down and can’t help but to rise. He runs his fingers through the tips of his hair, which hang just below his shoulders now, and huffs out a laugh. “My hair got long.”

It makes him feel almost...almost like…

Moonjumper floats into the reflection behind him, beaming. They too seem lighter, unfettered by the remainder of the past that clung on with their former clothes. Snatcher smirks at them. “Hey, that’s an improvement. You should let them dress you more often.”

They laugh. “I agree! I think I’ll hang onto this one.”

“Not going as the Badge Seller this time, hm?” Snatcher says privately.

Their smile becomes more introspective as they shake their head. “I thought maybe I ought to start owning who I am.”

Bow Kid comes over to inspect. She squints at the length of their sleeves and the way the jacket falls and the creases in the joints. After a careful examination, she claps her hands. “I think they’re perfect!”

“Okay, great. Now we have, uh, how many hours to kill before this thing starts?”

“Yeah, we can chill for a while,” Hat says, taking off the waistcoat. “But we still gotta make sure we get all washed up and stuff before we go.”

Snatcher groans under his breath. He remembers getting ready for events. Vanessa had to spend hours getting ready as was expected of the queen, and he had to make sure everything in the household was running smoothly for the guests. Hopefully these modern day parties wouldn’t be nearly so involved. Anxiety simmers in his stomach. The last time he got forced into a crowd after coming back to life, he had a nervous breakdown, and he does  _ not _ want to embarrass himself--or the kids for that matter--at their big event.

He changes out of the tuxedo back into his lounging clothes. As nice as they make him feel, they aren’t the most comfortable, and he still needs to make them all lunch. The last thing they need is for him to splatter something on a dinner jacket. Then, mid-afternoon hits, and the preparations begin in earnest. Showering, hairstyling, ironing the clothes, all of it adds up quickly, and he and Moonjumper scramble around fetching accessories for the kids. Bow Kid beckons Snatcher over and while he sits in front of the bed, she brushes his hair out and ties it up with a yellow bow, completing his look.

“Wait, wait, hold on! One more thing.” Hat Kid runs over to them. She leaps at him, forcing him to catch her midair, and as he stumbles, she plops her top hat onto his head. Instantly he feels the mental link thrum to life as its mechanisms sync with him. Snatcher gives her a bemused smile, and she grins. “There, I’d say that raised your coolness by about five percent.”

“Five whole percent?” Snatcher says, walking over to the mirror and snickering at the sight of himself in the hat.

“Well, okay, maybe even a clean ten,” Hat Kid says, tucking her head under his chin. Once again, he wonders: what does he want?

Then, the four of them pack onto the teleporter as Hat punches in the coordinates.

“Got the invitation?” Moonjumper asks.

“Right here!” She holds a golden card decorated like a film reel in the air and then with a “boop” hits the launch button and sends them off.

* * *

Snatcher seizes up the moment he sees the mass of people thronging outside the shining theater, the line of them snaking out from the double doors to the lobby and out onto the streetside. They gasp and murmur at the explosive sight of four people bursting into existence out of nowhere, and he clenches his fists in his pockets as the tingle of hundreds of eyes land on them all at once.

A small hand grabs his arm, and he turns, breaking out of his paralysis. "This way," Bow says, pulling him toward the front entrance. He releases his hand from his pocket so that she can clasp it properly as she leads him through. Hat Kid swaggers into a gap in the crowd just ahead of them to create an opening.

Thank goodness for VIP access, Snatcher thinks as they get situated in the dark theater. The stars of the show got to cut to the front of the line and got reserved seats.

Before the film starts rolling, the bird directors both get up in front of the screen and into the spotlight, making dual speeches about the collaboration and pulling up Hat and Bow to applaud their role in the show. And then, the lights darken, and the film starts.

* * *

“Do you know how the train explosion connected to anything?” Moonjumper asks as they disperse from the theater and into the ballroom where the dinner and afterparty are happening.

“I don’t think I get movies in general,” Snatcher says.

“I mean, I was following the whole penguin-owl romantic subplot, but then once the murder mystery aspect started, I kept waiting for it all to come back around.”

“I...don’t know, Moon.”

“But people seemed to like it!”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Did we miss something?”

Snatcher throws his hands up. “Apparently!”

“No-o,” Bow says, turning around and walking backwards as she talks to them. “The romance was for the  _ emotion! _ So you get worried about what happens after the uncle’s sister gets murdered!”

“And the explosion was about the  _ fun! _ ” Hat Kid says, splaying her arms out in an arc over her head. “Because explosions are cool.”

“Hm,” says Moonjumper, putting their finger to their chin.

Snatcher shakes his head. “I don’t get movies.”

“You two were wonderful actors, though!” Moonjumper says, rescuing the conversation. “I’m proud of you.”

The kids radiate joy, while Snatcher’s world tilts on its axis hearing Moonjumper say that, and he almost walks into a wall. “M-me too, kiddos,” his mouth supplies helpfully while his brain reboots.

Everyone is mingling in the ballroom now, and Snatcher swallows the discomfort that rides up his spine as they plunge into the crowd. Stay cool, he tells himself. Remember why you’re here. He adjusts the top hat--because he  _ is _ still wearing it--straightens himself, and takes Bow Kid’s hand to escort her through the crowd, because if this is their moment, he’s not about to be the one to cast a shadow over it. Moonjumper catches on and moves to accompany Hat. People cheer at the kids as they wave at their adoring fans. They make it to the table up front, and a fluffy owl with a clipboard hurries up to greet them.

“Wonderful! Our stars have arrived. The directors will be here shortly and dinner will commence.” She swivels her head to Snatcher and Moonjumper. “Oh, and you must be their parents! You must be so proud!” And before anyone can protest, the owl assistant hustles them to their seats and scurries off to manage the rest of the guests.

“Well. We’re proud,” Moonjumper says mildly as they sit down.

“Hehe, that owl called you our dads,” Hat Kid giggles, poking Snatcher in the arm.

“My worst nightmare,” Snatcher intones. She blows a raspberry at him.

Something spiky latches onto his leg, and Snatcher yelps, kicking out from under the tablecloth. A tiny, yellow bird...creature has caught his shin in a vice grip.

“Aww, it’s the Conductor’s grandbaby,” Bow Kid coos.

“The Conductor’s what?” Snatcher asks in a strangled voice as he tries to pry the thing off him.

“Ach, let go, ye little biter!” The Conductor himself swoops in from the crowd, DJ Grooves sauntering up after him. The Conductor coaxes the infant off of Snatcher with practiced ease and lets it clamber all over his shoulders. “Sorry, lad. The wee bairns have a penchant for getting out of their cradles and into everything else.”

“These are yours?” Snatcher asks.

“Me daughter’s,” the Conductor says as the infant scrabbles for purchase on his shoulder. “Great tae see ye out and about, by the way. How’s being alive treating ye lately, Mister Meat Suit?”

Moonjumper hucks forward to stifle a laugh, and Snatcher kicks at them unsuccessfully under the table. “It’s  _ fine, _ ” Snatcher grumbles. “I was drunk.”

“The Conductor’s only teasing, darling,” DJ Grooves says smoothly. “But it is delightful to see all of you for the grand debut. We couldn’t have done it without our little stars here.”

“Right, right,” the Conductor says, waving a hand at his colleague. “We’ve got tae greet the other guests now so enjoy the rest of the party!”

Eventually, everyone gets settled at their tables, and the assistant owl taps a microphone up front to announce that dinner will be served shortly. The food is decent, if a bit contrasting, as though two people were unable to agree on a theme for the menu and decided to compromise. Snatcher avoids the alcohol this time. Moonjumper watches wistfully as he and the kids enjoy their meal, and Snatcher shoots them a sympathetic look. Food is one of those things that he really relishes about being alive.

Then it’s time for more speeches and the post-meal entertainment. The center of the room is empty, until the lights go down and a disco ball descends from the ceiling, music thumping from the wall-mounted speakers. As if on cue, dozens of birds and other guests leap up to hit the dance floor. The mish-mash of styles don’t match the music--the penguins moonwalking, the owls tap-dancing, and the crows doing robotic twitches completely off beat--but they all look delighted. Well, Snatcher isn’t sure on the crows, but everyone else seems happy.

“Let’s get our directors on the floor!” the assistant owl cheers through the loudspeakers. The Conductor and DJ Grooves oblige, and the crowd creates a space for them, hooting and whooping as the two tear it up in their equally unique ways.

DJ Grooves beckons to the kids. “Come on out, darlings!”

“Who wants to see the stars?” shouts the assistant through the mic. 

Hat and Bow leap up and bound onto the dance floor, and the crowd goes truly wild, shifting around so that they partially block the view of the kids from Snatcher’s table. The moment they leave his sight, the top hat thrums, pinging on a deep undercurrent of distress. Through the mass of people, the hat sends Snatcher a signal, drawing his attention to where the kids are so he can track their motion even as he can’t see them. He gets to his feet and, taking a deep breath, jerks his head at Moonjumper before shoving his way into the crowd.

Snatcher bursts out at the front, nearly tossed out into the center of the floor by the crush of people. Moonjumper surfaces a few feet away, eyes wide with the most overwhelm he’s ever seen in them. When the kids catch sight of them, though, they shout in excitement and wave them over. Snatcher shakes his head frantically. That’s  _ not _ what he signed up for, he just wanted to make sure he could see them.

Too late. The two of them rush over, and they grab onto his and Moonjumper’s hands and drag them forward.

“Kid! What are you doing?” Snatcher yelps as Hat Kid clutches his hands.

“It’s okay! It’s just us!” she shouts back. She grips his hands tighter, no doubt feeling how damp they are at the moment. “Just dance!”

There’s something in her eyes, something shining and adoring--whatever it was that made the two of them willing to give up a precious time resource to help him change himself back, just so they could have him at their side on the night of their celebration. They wanted the four of them to be together, here, tonight, at this party, and apparently, on the dance floor too. It’s this unidentifiable something that unearths his courage, and hell, maybe he can forget about all those other people making noise out there if these two little girls ask him to dance with them.

Snatcher shifts his stance, releasing one of her hands so he can properly hold the other, and he gives her a little smirk, breathless as he is, to tell her,  _ ready when you are. _ She sees it and opens her mouth in a broad laugh, and twirls under his arm.

And so they dance. He and Moonjumper alternate with Bow and Hat, and amidst the music and the crowd, he really does forget about everyone else.

* * *

Snatcher slumps on the table as the crowd thins out. Waitstaff are making rounds collecting dishes, and the lights have returned to normal as people say their goodbyes. The kids are both passed out, Hat Kid curled up in a ball in Moonjumper’s lap, and Bow with her face buried in her arms next to Snatcher. His dinner jacket and tie are draped over the back of his chair, and he’s had to roll his sleeves up to his elbows in a desperate attempt to cool down. Once the cleaning crew starts drifting in and sweeping around their table, Snatcher catches Moonjumper’s eye.

“Time to get lost?”

They quirk their lip up and rise, cradling the sleeping Hat Kid while Snatcher picks up Bow. As they struggle to gather up their jackets an armful of kids, the directors greet them again.

“I’d say the little darlings had a grand old time,” DJ Grooves says. “Those were some moves on the dance floor. Never thought I’d get to see you two perform.”

The Conductor chuckles, gesturing at the sleeping kids. “Ye know, lads, if I didn’t know any better, I woulda thought the lasses invited their parents to the party.”

Snatcher groans. “Not you too.”

“Jus’ callin it like I see it.”

“If I need your input, I’ll ask for it,” he mutters. He fiddles with the top hat, wondering if he can figure out the teleport without waking anyone up. After several minutes of failure, Bow Kid stirs, watches him with sleepy eyes and then reaches up to her own bow and engages some invisible mechanism, beaming them back up to the ship.

It takes a while to motivate them to change and wash up for bed, and at one point Snatcher knocks on the bathroom door to make sure they haven’t fallen asleep on the bathmat. He and Moonjumper tuck them into bed, and the two pass out before they can ask him to read. Snatcher sighs, dropping into a heap on the pillow stack and undoing his waistcoat while still lying down.

“I really hope they don’t have another one of those,” Snatcher wheezes. He kicks his dress shoes off and sends them tumbling across the floor.

Moonjumper drifts down next to him. “I-yes, that was a bit much for me.” They’re silent for a bit, and Snatcher almost falls asleep himself. “They were happy though,” Moonjumper says.

“Huh? Oh. Yeah.” He turns to look at the sleeping kids on the bed. “Yeah, seems like it.”

It means something, doesn’t it? They were  _ happy. _ And it was important to them that he was there.

Who is he now?

He can’t stop asking himself this. And then there’s the follow up: if he changes back, can he still be that person? Does he want  _ this _ to change? Does he even take the risk? Because what he knows is that when he picks them up and holds them close, it feels right. When he takes their hands, when he reads for them, teaches them, it’s  _ right. _ And when he looks in their eyes and sees something shining there, something that looks a bit like love, it makes him feel almost like…

It makes him feel like himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't cry over my own stuff, but I definitely had to hold on a second, man, hold on a second when I wrote this bit.


End file.
